“Can anyone tell me if Jock Climie has a Grey Cup championship and a ring? Thank you!” he said.

The Edmonton Eskimos quarterback seems to be emotional in the aftermath of Sunday’s 42-26 loss to the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League’s East Division semifinal. Joseph got the start and watched the Argos reel off 31 unanswered points in a decisive second quarter that essentially sealed the Eskimos’ fate.

For his third game in a row, Joseph was unable to consistently put points on the board and the Eskimos suffered their fourth consecutive loss to end the season.

It’s unclear what Climie, a former CFL receiver and current TSN panellist, said that irked Joseph. By Tuesday afternoon, Joseph had removed the tweet from his timeline.

It was a telling scene at the Eskimos’ garbage bag day on Monday, when the players cleaned out their lockers. A large scrum of reporters surrounded Joseph, who has plenty of experience being the voice and face of his team. He was essentially abandoned by mid-sentence when his backup, 25-year-old Matt Nichols, made his way into the locker-room.

Nichols was on crutches, his left ankle in a thick cast just a day after it was dislocated in the third quarter. A fan favourite whom many wanted to assume the starting duties as far back as July, the Eskimos’ quarterback of the future upended the present and Joseph’s moment was quickly over.

As they always are on an end-of-season media day, the questions were about the future and the 39-year-old Joseph is a question mark. Should Nichols fully recover from surgery to fix his ankle, the demand for the promising young quarterback to start will be even greater when training camp opens in June.

Eskimos head coach Kavis Reed has lauded Joseph’s presence in the locker-room and his influence on Nichols, but every player wants to start. On Monday, Joseph was annoyed by questions about next season. Still, Reed said he sees a place on the team for the 2007 CFL most outstanding player and Grey Cup MVP.

“I said last year Kerry was our team’s MVP,” Reed said on Monday. “This year, I have not changed my opinion about Kerry or the leadership that he has.

“The role he’s taken in Matt Nichols’ development, the kind of man that he is, the kind of presence he has in that locker-room … age aside, Kerry has done a phenomenal job for this franchise. He’s an individual who has played at a very high level.”

If Nichols isn’t healthy enough to start at the beginning of the 2013 season, it’s unlikely the fan base would be happy with Joseph assuming that role. The aftermath of the Ricky Ray trade has fans yearning for a capable starter with a decent-sized window on his career to help the team win quickly, or Nichols, a young quarterback who can learn on the fly and give the team long-term stability.

Joseph doesn’t fit the bill in either of those scenarios.

“I’m very passionate about that young man and whatever he decides to do,” Reed said of Joseph. “If he wants to continue playing football, it’s something that will have to be considered from his perspective, but from a franchise perspective, we value what Kerry is about.”

Joseph as a backup, or in an advisory role next season, could work for the Eskimos. On Monday, Joseph didn’t seem ready to concede anything in his career yet.

He added one final tweet on Monday night.

“Flush 2012 out of the system and refocus and re-energize for 2013! GOD POWER and GOD SPEED!” he said.